James Rupert writes: Pakistan Refugees Say Army Assault Made Them Homeless

Pakistanis fleeing the Swat Valley say the army shelled their villages, killing civilians in its offensive this week against Taliban militants. As a United Nations-estimated half-million people fled the battle, refugees reaching Mardan, a town 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Swat, said army artillery barrages killed an unknown number of non-combatant residents. Civilian deaths from army attacks could erode public and political support for the “all-out assault” that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered on May 7, said Talat Masood, a retired army lieutenant general who is now an independent political analyst in Islamabad, the capital. The government may also lose public support over its failure to prepare to help refugees, said Yasir Ali Bacha, head of the Mardan Foundation, a civic group in Mardan. Journalist James Rupert, head of Bloomberg's international bureau in Islamabad, Pakistan began his career abroad as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching mechanics and welding in Morocco.

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By James Rupert

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistanis fleeing the Swat Valley say the army shelled their villages, killing civilians in its offensive this week against Taliban militants.

As a United Nations-estimated half-million people fled the battle, refugees reaching Mardan, a town 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Swat, said army artillery barrages killed an unknown number of non-combatant residents.

"There was a bombardment at night, and the army shells destroyed the homes of some of our neighbors" in Charbagh, a village in southern Swat, said Bakht Taj, a 24-year-old who fled Swat, in an interview yesterday. Taj, who arrived in Mardan with nine family members, including six children, spoke in a field west of Mardan where thousands of refugees were pitching tents.

"The next morning we left as quickly as possible," he said. "The army says it's attacking the Taliban, but in Charbagh they are hitting local people instead."

Civilian deaths from army attacks could erode public and political support for the "all-out assault" that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered on May 7, said Talat Masood, a retired army lieutenant general who is now an independent political analyst in Islamabad, the capital. The government may also lose public support over its failure to prepare to help refugees, said Yasir Ali Bacha, head of the Mardan Foundation, a civic group in Mardan.

Pakistan's army spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, couldn't be reached for comment. Last week, he denied similar reports from Buner, and an armed forces statement May 5 said it was militants who were "threatening the lives of the innocent people of Swat."

Attack on Guerillas

Thousands of troops, plus fighter planes and helicopter gunships, attacked what the army says are about 4,000 Taliban guerrillas in Swat, a mile-high valley northwest of the capital. The government acted after guerrillas took advantage of a controversial cease-fire to advance south from Swat into the adjacent Buner district, 100 kilometers from Islamabad.

President Barack Obama is pressing Gilani's government to decisively defeat the Taliban, who have seized control along hundreds of miles of the Afghan border, strengthening their base for attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

This month's refugee exodus from around Swat will double to 1 million the number of displaced people in northwest Pakistan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said yesterday.

Suspected U.S. Attack

A suspected U.S. missile attack has killed 6 people in Pakistan near its border with Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported today, citing unidentified Pakistani intelligence officials.

The missile strike targeted a former government building in South Waziristan, an area where Taliban and al-Qaeda militants are based, the report said.

In Mardan, UNHCR workers have installed some latrines, while officials struggled to provide food.

"Nothing has been prepared in advance," said Sawar Khan, a Mardan-based aid worker for Movement for Rural Development, which is helping set up refugee camps near the town.

"The government is providing food and transportation for the displaced people and refugee camps are being set up as quickly as possible," said Shams ul-Haq Yousufzai, the district government's information officer in Mardan.

A fifth of the patients at Mardan's district hospital are casualties of the fighting, the hospital register showed yesterday.

Conventional Capability

Pakistan's army, built to fight conventional wars against India, has caused civilian losses with conventional tactics previously in its five-year battle against the Taliban, said Masood, the independent analyst.

Initial army attacks in the Buner district last week were led by the Special Service Group, an elite, commando-style force, Masood said.

"But it's not certain that the army has enough well- trained resources to deploy them at the same time in Buner and Swat," he said.

Abbas, the army spokesman, said last week that Buner would be cleared of guerrillas within a week. Yesterday, he told reporters the Buner offensive has been slowed because Taliban are using civilians as human shields.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Islamabad at jrupert3@ bloomberg.net.

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